Yes, Trigger Warnings Could Lead to Censorship

If you've been following book news over the past few months then you may have noticed the ongoing debate about trigger warnings.

Professors and student advocates at some US universities have been debating whether classes which read certain types of literature should add a "trigger warning" to the class syllabus to warn students suffering from PTSD or who were victims of assault that a book might trigger an incident.

There's been a lot of debate on this topic, with some going so far as to ridicule the idea, and on the other end of the spectrum propose trigger warnings for "heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, and other issues of oppression". As someone who is in principle in favor of the idea, I have been sitting out the debate, but today I decided to jump in and address one of my concerns that some have discarded out of hand.

Rebecca Schinsky, writing over at Book Riot, doesn't see any reason why we should be worried about censorship:

What Rebecca fails to acknowledge is that there are more types of censorship than government-enforced censorship. For example, there is the subtle commercial censorship system of the MPAA ratings. While that appears to be voluntary, any movie without an MPAA rating will have a difficult time getting into movie theaters. Similarly, any movie with an NC-17 rating simply won't be shown.

And given that the MPAA's ratings board has at times explicitly said that you need to change this, that, and the other in order to get a lower rating, this is a form of censorship:

And that's not the only reason to be concerned. Here in the US we have a censorship issue on the local level.

It's called book banning.

To name one example, it was only a couple months ago that an Idaho school district banned Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, over the protests of students, teachers, and parents.

The book makes reference to masturbation, contains profanity and has been viewed by many as anti-Christian. Some Meridian School District parents and students cautioned the board about banning the book, while others labeled it pornographic and racist.

What Rebecca fails to acknowledge is that if trigger warnings become more widespread, if it becomes common for books to be listed in catalogs with trigger warnings, then we will be handing the book banners another weapon in their fight to remove literature from libraries and schools. We might even see parents groups pressuring schools and libraries to not buy these books in the first place, simply because they come with a trigger warning. And if that happens, we are all going to be harmed.

So yes, when someone raises concerns of censorship, they're not misstating the case, they're not misunderstanding the situation, and they're not, as Rebecca put it, wringing their hands.

In conclusion, when The Guardian pointed out that trigger warnings were "one small step from book banning", they were not wrong:

Of course, life doesn't come with a trigger warning, even if it should. And while a classroom conversation about emotionally fraught subjects would seem not only advisable but also just part of any decent teaching method, slapping a trigger warning on classic works of literature seems a short step away from book banning, a kind of censorship based on offenses to individual feelings.

And as the idea of trigger warnings moves forward, we need to keep the potential downsides in mind. The best way to avoid trigger warnings being misused is to not develop a system where they can be misused.

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Nate Hoffelder is the founder and editor of The Digital Reader:"I've been into reading ebooks since forever, but I only got my first ereader in July 2007. Everything quickly spiraled out of control from there. Before I started this blog in January 2010 I covered ebooks, ebook readers, and digital publishing for about 2 years as a part of MobileRead Forums. It's a great community, and being a member is a joy. But I thought I could make something out of how I covered the news for MobileRead, so I started this blog."

4 Comments on Yes, Trigger Warnings Could Lead to Censorship

Is it really like the MPAA ratings, or is it more like HBO noting within its movie listings or before, say, Game of Thrones, that the following program will be containing adult situations, profanity, nudity, and violence (that’s how you know the good programs!)?

Just an example, me personally, I like to be informed when a movie’s or show’s plot will include September 11 somehow. It happens rarely, but sometimes even an allusion or similar situation can trigger me. I remember watching The Dark Knight Rises and the moment Bane blows up all Pittsburgh’s bridges; at the time, I was relieved I’d read a little about that particular detail. I’m thinking, too, of Irreversible, which prompted theaters to warn ticket buyers ahead of time regarding a few scenes (a really graphic scene of violence at the beginning and a harrowing, long rape scene in the middle). Well. The theater I went to, anyway. And I didn’t mind either, but I saw a few theater-goers watch the movie in spurts, leaving during a given scene and then returning five minutes later.